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Sunday, April 09, 2017

"Drew Fisher has attended Shuford
Elementary since kindergarten, and now as a fifth-grader, he admits
there have been a lot of changes – mostly because of blended learning." continues Hickory Daily Record.

The first example he likes to highlight is the amount of technology used by students.

“You
used to do everything on pencil and paper, and now we’re finding ways
to do it on the computer, and I like it that way,” Fisher said. “Now,
the teachers can’t get on to you for turning in something on crunched up
paper.”

It
was this type of bold, confidence visitors saw in every class they
visited from kindergarten to fifth grade during Wednesday’s Blended
Learning Showcase at the school.

This
method of teaching has students working in small groups of equal
learning levels and then rotating from face-to-face time with their
teacher to using online tools to working at hands-on stations. The
system allows teachers to personalize instruction while not slowing down
an entire class, making the most of digital content online.

Working
in a group is a big part of the blended learning method as well, and
some of the student guides during the showcase admitted it can be hard
working with others at times.

“It
depends on the assignment we’re given,” Reid Griffin said. “Patience is
important. It’s the same thing like sports. If you keep working with
what you’re doing, you’ll get better at it.”

Aspen Hartsoe, a fourth-grader, said it came down to learning how to get along.

“The
people in your group have to cooperate with you or it doesn’t work,”
Hartsoe said. “You just figure each other out, and it gets easier the
longer you do it.”

Newton-Conover
City Schools board chair Jeanne Jarrett was one of the school’s guests,
and she enjoyed seeing the different teaching options available to
Shuford teachers.

“Showcasing
it like this really showed us a little bit more hands-on as to what
they’re doing,” Jarrett said. “It’s really amazing how you can walk into
a classroom and they’re all working on the same topic but they’re doing
it in different ways. Some are on iPads. Some are using pencil and
paper. Some are using books.”

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About Me

Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.